This is the final entry in a series of posts about what a wonderful time I had at the 2010 Vancouver One Of A Kind Show last December. Part One was about The Booth and the second part was all about The People.

The OOAK Show was my big debut, my big test to see if I was on the right track with my designs. It was a little nerve racking, but also exhilarating. I felt like I was working towards the show in the dark. Everything was new to me and figuring it all out was part guesswork, research and just trusting my instincts along the way.

Leading up to OOAK, I had no idea how much pottery to make. My Wobbly Shotglasses had gotten some attention in September and October, so I made a whole lot of those. Then in November and December my Dots! Mini Bowls got some press, so I made a whole lot of those. But I still couldn’t predict how much I would sell or if I would even sell anything at all. Then there was that stupid little voice of doubt that likes to knock me off kilter murmuring to me, “What if people don’t like it? What if no one buys anything?” I had no idea what the response was going to be from the public. Were they going to like it? More importantly, were they going to buy it?

Thankfully, they did.

They liked my pots and they bought them! So much so that I nearly sold out of blue Wobbly Shotglasses and orange Dots! Mini Bowls (my two favourite colours in those lines). I also had a draw for the very first set of Dots! Mini Vases and over 90 people signed up to win them (Congratulations Lorinda!).

Watching the sales trends at my booth was really interesting; each day was a little different. For example, before OOAK my Dragonfly Vases were a good seller. I thought they would do well at the show. However, on Thursday and Friday I didn’t sell a single one. In fact my whole Dragonfly line was a slow seller – until Saturday. All of Saturday morning seemed to be about the Dragonflies and in that one day I almost sold out of all my Dragonfly Mugs.

It was a great, busy, energetic day. I don’t know what it was but it did feel like there was a bit of Dragonfly Magic in the air. I met so many people who love dragonflies and they all shared their dragonfly stories with me. And most of those stories were quite moving.

Then it happened – I sold a Dragonfly Vase, to Carol. She bought it to give to a friend of hers who loves dragonflies.

And that was another thing that was really nice about the OOAK show, so many people were buying gifts which gave the whole weekend a happy and festive atmosphere. To confess, I love Christmas. It is one of my favourite times of year. And it was a sheer delight for me to take a moment on Christmas day and think about all the people opening gifts with Mena Dragonfly pottery inside. It was a reminder of why I love to do this – I love sharing my pottery with people.

Before OOAK I was pretty charged up about my pottery and this business I’ve started, but now I am so inspired.

I’m inspired by the couple who came to the show from Maple Ridge and made sure to come by my booth because they had read about me in the Vancouver Sun and had been reading my blog (Hello you two!).

I’m inspired by the woman from Steveston who had been told by a bunch of her customers to come to the show and check out the “Dots Lady.”

I’m inspired by all of the great suggestions, ideas and requests people gave me.

The Vancouver One Of A Kind Show may have been my big debut, but it feels like it was just the beginning. In the last few weeks I’ve been testing out some ideas, playing with some new glaze colours and making pottery of course.

I’ve re-opened both my BigCartel and Etsy shops and in the coming weeks I’ll be making and adding a whole bunch of new things to both shops.

Coming Soon:

• More Dots! Mini Vases
• More colours in the Dots! Line
• More Dragonfly Mugs… and a new Dragonfly surprise.

I can’t wait to show it all to you!

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been more than a month since the Vancouver One Of A Kind Show. Overall the show was amazing! The experience went beyond my expectations, though it was hard to know what to expect since it was my very first show ever.

I’ve been writing a recap of my OOAK experience and this is Part One: The Booth

I’ve been to a lot of craft shows and I’ve also had the benefit of working at craft shows so I’ve seen and worked at a lot of booths. Leading up to OOAK I had a very clear idea of how I wanted my booth to look and how I wanted it to function. But of course, planning a booth and actually setting one up are two different things.

Having been a Project Manager I know that many plans often don’t go exactly as planned. I knew going into OOAK that I was going to end up learning a lot of lessons the hard way simply because this was my first show. And really, there was no way around that – things happened that I couldn’t have predicted. Like the sign printing company misprinting one of my signs the day before the show, or the minor car accident we got into a couple of hours before we were scheduled to go to the convention centre for set up, or having a bag of tools disappear just as we needed them to finish the booth the night before the show opened.

Everything worked out fine – the sign was reprinted at no extra cost, the car is a little worse for wear but is still running and we found the tools in a garbage bin and finished the booth set up with an hour to spare.

But holy moly – I am so glad those two days of set up are behind me. Especially because now I know that next time will be better.

Here’s what I learned:

• I need to simplify my booth set up. I thought I had a pretty easy and straight-forward booth, but I can do better.
• On Day 1 of set up I spent way too much time steaming the wrinkles out of the white curtains that lined the back and side of my booth. Way, way too much time. Next time I will get the curtains pressed beforehand or I’ll order a hard wall.
• On Day 2 of set up I did something really dumb: I unpacked all of my pottery. I wasn’t thinking about my display when I packed up the pottery for the show, so when It came time to start putting the pottery out I decided to unpack all of it then sort out the display afterward. That was dumb. I spent way, way too much time unpacking everything when I could have just unpacked it as I needed it. Next time I’ll be smarter about how I pack my pottery for a show.

In terms of functionality my booth rocked. Mark and I had found a nice little table top in the Ikea As Is section. It was exactly the right colour – shiny white – and had two wide drawers, perfect for holding all of the odds and ends. After Mark made a few modifications to it, the Ikea As Is Special worked really, really well. I also had with me a set of shelves I use in my studio space, they provided a surface for the display as well as storage for all that pottery I stupidly unpacked.

As for the location of my booth, it was awesome! I had a corner booth, on the centre aisle, right between the Visual Art and Flavours sections, and right beside the day care. Being next to the food section had a few perks of it’s own, for one I did not go hungry at the OOAK Show. In fact every time I went to the bathroom I had to pass through the Flavours section so of course I had a few samples on the way. Plus I was in close proximity to the shortbread guy and I actually snagged some delicious treats before he sold out.

After planning and setting up and seeing my booth at the show I was very, very happy with how it turned out. My booth looked very close to what I had envisioned. To add to that I got a lot of really positive feedback about my booth from customers and other exhibitors. One person said my booth felt like a breath of fresh air, a few people commented on how professional it looked, and lots of people loved my big, orange dragonfly set against the white back drop.

One of my favourite memories from the show was when I took a moment to get out of my booth, I stood across the aisle and examined all the details and felt an enormous amount of pride. A year earlier I had been thinking about how amazing it would be to start a pottery business and be an exhibitor at the Vancouver One Of A Kind Show. And I did it. I really did.

Thank you Marlis for this photo.

Next Monday I’ll post Part 2 of my OOAK Recap: The People

I’m working on some exciting stuff, I think you’ll like it.

The last three months have been a bit of whirlwind and here’s why:

In March I was accepted into an entrepreneurship program, it started in April and is now wrapping up. It’s been an incredible experience, which challenged me and opened my mind to a whole world of possibilities I hadn’t even thought of.

At the start of the course I thought I’d be able to make my pottery and keep up with the classes at the same time. And I did do that for the first couple of weeks, until I realized that I was simply going to burn myself out before I even had the chance to officially start my new venture. So the pottery making was put on a hold for a bit but I’m now back at the wheel and currently waiting for the kiln to cool from my latest glaze-test firing, I’m anxious to see the results.

In the coming weeks there are going to be a few changes made to this website and I’m (finally!) going to launch an online store.

At the start of the year I wrote that I had a good feeling about 2010, six months in and I’m still excited about 2010. I feel like I’m on the cusp of something grand and I’m looking forward to having you with me on this journey.

Thank you for being here,
Melanie
xo

I have a love/hate relationship with the computer.

Since January I have been spending a lot of time on the laptop figuring out financials, doing market research and writing plans. But on Monday, March 15 I got some good news that allowed me to take some time off the computer and get back on the wheel, so that’s what I’ve been doing. While I’m waiting for the kiln to cool it’s a good time for me to catch up on the blog.

The computer to me is a “can’t live with it, can’t live without” item. I love the computer for all the same reasons most people love computers, but I think my hate-side stems from the fact that I associate being on the computer with being in physical pain.

Back in the 90’s I was working on my honours thesis and I developed I weird little lump on my wrist. After visiting the doctor I discovered that it was just a ganglion-cyst and would probably rupture at some point, which I was assured was no big deal. Yeah right, when that thing finally did rupture the pain was horrible and spread through to the tips of my fingers and up to my elbow.

A couple years later I was working at a desk job and my right wrist and arm were often in pain. It would sometimes hurt too much to pick up a cup of tea. Again, I went to a doctor, who sent me to a specialist, who then ran a bunch of tests on each of my arms that consisted of sending electricity from my elbow to my fingers. I was told the good news, I didn’t have carpal tunnel syndrome – yet. I took the doctor’s advice and had my desk set up correctly, began doing exercises for my wrist and started wearing a brace to keep my wrist from moving side to side when I typed.

Over the years, from one desk job to another, my wrist was always in pain, but it was manageable with the brace. If I didn’t wear the brace for one day I wouldn’t be able to carry a bag of groceries. As time went on though the pain spread. It all seemed to happen so slowly that I somehow just accepted it and lived with the chronic pain in my right side – which eventually spread to my shoulder, neck and back. I just always felt like I needed a good, long massage, or a rack.

It’s amazing to me now to think that I lived with that pain for so long, because now, since I haven’t been working at a desk for 40+ hours a week, the pain is almost completely gone. I still get a twinge in my neck every now and then, but I haven’t worn that wrist brace since August.

So really, that’s why I don’t like the computer, for so many years it seemed to inflict pain on me. I know that as I start and run my business, there will be times when I’ll have to dig out the brace from wherever it is packed away now, that there will be times when I will have to spend a good chunk of my time typing, but I’m going to relish this time now, the time when I can put limits on my computer time and spend more time on the wheel making beautiful, unique, pottery – for you.

I will post pictures of my latest creations as soon as I can crack that kiln open.